Sean Getzwiller

Arizona-born Sean Getzwiller didn’t go straight into poker like so many American counterparts of his generation. He worked in the real estate industry for a number of years before taking the leap to play cards full-time around 2007. He moved to Las Vegas shortly after so that he could enjoy both live and online games.

In his second-ever live tournament cash, he caught a six-figure score when he finished runner-up in the 2009 $3,000 No Limit Hold’em Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $124,990. Amongst the in-the-money finishers were top French player Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier and WSOP bracelet winner David Peters. That Sean was rubbing shoulders with these poker legends and managing to beat them in just his second tournament cash was a sign that he had a bright future in the game.

Fast forward a couple of years, and Sean was posing for a winner’s photo at the WSOP. To get there, he emerged victorious in a field of 4,000+ players at the 2011 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em and scooped a $611,185 reward for doing so.

More than 15 WSOP cashes since then, Sean had a chance to win a second bracelet when he made the final table of the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event in a star-studded line-up driven by Phil Hellmuth. Despite finishing ahead of the WSOP legend, Getzwiller exited in sixth for a cash of $84,004.

Since Black Friday, Sean has made trips to Canada every so often in order to play online at the biggest sites. In 2014, he was grateful for this decision as he took down one of the most revered online tournaments around – the Sunday Million. Operating under the screenname ‘wormnorton’ on PokerStars, Sean pocketed a huge $232,443 after getting past a 7,700-strong field – equivalent to the amount of entrants at the WSOP Main Event.